Belinda White

SHE MAY be British fashion's number one international ambassador and top of Harper's Bazaar's best dressed list, but it seems Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, didn't quite do enough to win her public's vote when it came to the British Fashion Awards's Style Icon crown.

SHE MAY be British fashion's number one international ambassador and top of Harper's Bazaar's best dressed list, but it seems Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, didn't quite do enough to win her public's vote when it came to the British Fashion Awards's Style Icon crown.

SHE MAY be British fashion's number one international ambassador and top of Harper's Bazaar's best dressed list, but it seems Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, didn't quite do enough to win her public's vote when it came to the British Fashion Awards's Style Icon crown.

That honour was bestowed last night, for the second year running, upon model turned TV presenter, Alexa Chung.

Perhaps it didn't help her campaign that the British Fashion Council originally left the Duchess off their short list of contenders - not exactly a vote of confidence - but to be fair to the Duchess, Alexa is a hard act to beat.

And this year more than any, with the fashion world in the throes of a sixties revival, it has been Alexa's year, almost as if she were the muse for many of the countless labels whose creations she has worn in 2011: Carven, YSL, Louis Vuitton, Christopher Kane, Stella McCartney, Miu Miu, Balenciaga, Mary Katrantzou and of course her beloved Chanel, the label for which she acts as ambassadress (possibly the most coveted role in fashion).

And if Karl Lagerfeld famously complained there were too many "fat legs" at the royal wedding, it's easy to see why he loves dressing Alexa, her Bambi-esque pins forming the central feature of her every look.

At last night's ceremony, Chung, whose signature style veers gracefully from wistfully girly, to rock and roll tomboy, was in Jean Shrimpton mode - as waifish as can be and resplendently elegant in a '60s style Christopher Kane embellished shift dress. She was also debuting a new take on her trademark long bob hairstyle, with a shorter fringe and bushier crown, which at first glance rendered her almost unrecognisable.

But anyone in any doubt as to who the best dressed girl in the room was didn't have to wait long to find out after Chung's name was called out - rather fittingly by Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel 'collaboratrice', Lady Amanda Harlech - and she stepped up to accept her crown once again.

Kate Moss, looking on, must have been wondering where it all went wrong.